Natalie is 9!

Natalie's 9th birthday was on May 24th.  It was a Saturday, so we were able to have the whole family together for the day.  Natalie, as always, was already awake and just waiting for us to come in and sing to her in the morning.  This is her popping out of her covers as we started singing "Happy Birthday." 

Kelton and Damon used their own money to buy Natalie this Applejack Equestria Girl doll. 

I think Natalie got everything she wanted for her birthday, plus some extras.  I somehow didn't take a picture of the presents she got from grandparents, but Grandma and Grandpa Webb gave Natalie her present a few days early because they were in town.  They gave her a set of Loom Bands and a loom.  She has been wanting that for a long time.  She is still making all kinds of bracelets to this day.  We also went out to eat for Natalie's birthday while grandparents were here.  We went to Texas Roadhouse.  It is the second time I have ever been there and I think it just might be the last.  Their rolls are really good... but that's about it.  I've not been impressed with anything else. 

Grandma and Grandpa Burgess gave Natalie an Anna doll and a Kristoff doll (Barbie dolls) from the movie Frozen.  We did FaceTime with them while she opened them.  She was very excited to have those dolls to go with her Elsa doll.

We gave Natalie an (absolutely-impossible-to-find-I-had-to-check-many-many-times) Elsa barbie doll, a Rainbow Dash Equestria doll, the game Clue, two shirts, and a Lego Creator 3-in-1 set.

After Natalie opened presents, I came downstairs to find that she had lined them up and was debating about which one to open first.  It made me smile.  (She picked Applejack.)

After Natalie's requested pancake breakfast, I got to work on her cake.  During one of my shopping trips to see if Target had the Elsa barbie back in stock, I found that they happened to have this little Elsa doll in stock.  That's when I got my idea for her cake.
 

My sister-in-law, Erica, had made snowflakes to put on her daughter's cake, so I copied the idea from her.  They are piped from candy melts and then sprinkled with sugar crystals.  They were pretty easy to make, but harder than I thought because I think I got my candy melts a little too melted.  When I would go to draw the snowflakes, the candy melts would come out way too fast.  So I had to be even faster.  It was a little tricky to keep the snowflake shape without the lines blurring together.

Natalie is truly my daughter--scraping out the remaining frosting from the bowl. 

Cute girls.  :)

After lunch (and after much asking from the boys if it was time for cake yet) we had Natalie's birthday cake.  Arie was entranced by the fire and the candles.

I don't know how she did this, but after we sang "Happy Birthday" and Natalie blew out the candles, not a single flame on any of the candles went out.  She looked at us and I immediately said, "They're not trick candles... blow again."  She got them out on her next try.  It was pretty funny.  I've never seen someone blow at that many candles and be 100% unsuccessful.

That afternoon, we did something we have never done before.  We went to Madera Canyon.  It is kind of crazy to think that we have lived in Sahuarita for over 8 years and Madera Canyon is only 20 minutes away, and we had never gone there.  Natalie was very excited to go.

After being a bit confused at first, we found a trail to walk on with the kids.  I found the canyon to be very pretty, though it still looks really desert-y in the pictures.  (But I've decided all of  Arizona looks like that right now after a very dry winter and spring.)

There was a squirrel in this tree that was right off the path.  I took a better picture of the squirrel (where you could actually see it), but it didn't have that other cute and crazy critter in it.

The kids quickly discovered that there were a lot of cool rocks to climb on.

"Look mom!  Grass!  Take a picture!!"  My poor desert children.

Kelton was really loving finding the big rocks.  But he kept running ahead to find and climb on them.

Then we rounded the corner to find him on this rock.  We then told him he needed to wait for us before climbing the rocks because it might not be safe.  Then he couldn't figure out how to get down off that big rock.  Nate and I, as awesome parents, were unsympathetic.  We told him, "you figured out how to get up... You can figure out how to get down."  It took him a minute, and I think he was a little scared, but he figured it out.

The kids thought this wooden bridge was awesome.

Natalie holding her daddy's hand...

When we got back from our walk, we sat in the picnic area and ate dinner.  We had packed sub sandwiches and chips.  After that, we drove back home and went to McDonalds for ice cream and to let the kids play in the playplace.  Then we put all the kids to bed, except for Natalie.  We let her stay up to play her new game of Clue with us.  The rules were changed a bit, making it easier, but we were still surprised to find, that by chance, the game was solved before we had all taken a turn.

I think Natalie had a good birthday.  It was fun to spend the day together as a family--we don't always get to do that on birthdays because of school and work. 

We love our outgoing, crazy, sweet, beautiful Natalie!